A WOMAN has lodged a complaint with health bosses claiming she will never be a mother after they failed to diagnosed her with early menopause for four years.
Laura Close has launched a formal complaint against NHS Fife, claiming doctors said she was “too young” for menopause and “fobbed” her off with anti-depressants.
The 37-year-old claims she was forced to diagnose herself last year after continuous hot sweats, insomnia and severe mood swings – all symptoms of menopause.
It resulted in the customer service adviser having a breakdown and being admitted to a psychiatric unit for nine days.
But Ms Close said medics thought she was having a mental breakdown and put her on anti-depressants and sleeping tablets to help her.
Ms Close, from Dunfermline, was finally diagnosed in March after her dad was forced to pay more than £2,000 for her to go for private medicine.
She says the health board’s failures have “completely ruined” her life, adding: “I had diagnosed myself, I had been telling them it’s menopause. I had erratic bleeding and they put me on pill after pill.
“It’s like my GP surgery didn’t have the experience on how to deal with this when I had been complaining about it for so long. It has completely destroyed my life and it is all because the NHS didn’t listen to what I was saying, they thought I was too young.
“I was told in May that I probably won’t be able to have kids naturally and it is probably too late for IVF now too. I am only 37 so I am really young to be going through this.
“I have tracked my grandad’s sister down and I was told that she went through the menopause in her 30s and so did her sisters and all her cousins. It is hereditary.”
She says she struggled to hear that she will not be able to have children naturally.
She said: “It is hard when people around you are all having kids. It has affected me mentally and physically.”
NHS Fife Chief Executive, Paul Hawkins, said: “NHS Fife is committed to providing the highest standards of care and we take all instances where this may have fallen short very seriously.”
Early menopause is when a woman’s periods stop before 45.
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